Happy New Year and Scrapbook Pages

Happy New Years in about 2 1/2 hours for us! We are now 4 for 4 on everyone getting sick. Nathan and Kinzi were sick all last week with colds and coughs...then I came down with it on Sunday....and now Chuck has come down with the same thing today. Boo Hoo!

I started working with my new copy of Photoshop CS4 today and did a couple of tutorials to get use to the new product. I upgraded from Photoshop Elements to Photoshop CS4.

The first one is just awesome. I'll be doing the same thing for Nathan before long. What's so cool about this layout is that I used one picture only.

I used Taylor Made designs tutorial to make this layout. The products I used Taylor Made Touch Grey Papers - Ivory and flax. Vicki Stegall and Taylor Made Wordart. Feistuff butterfly and brush strokes. Paper Blocks by Emily Merrit at We are Storytellers.

Everything I used for this layout came from Taylor Made Fallen Sun Kit.

Ignoring my blog

Hi everyone! Boy, it's been a long time since I updated the blog. I'll try to get some pictures up later this week. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Nathan and Kinzi were sick last week and I've caught their germs this week. I have a terrible cold and cough. We had a wonderful Christmas and the kids received some nice things from Santa. My mom visited from Clovis. We've been doggy sitting our friend's dog,,,,she is Scruffy's litter mate....her name is Lizzy. We've had a cold week but we are back up to 80 degrees today. I still have to write The Blank Chronicles for 2008. Just wanted to let you know we were still around!

December in Arizona

December in Arizona looks alot like summer in Arionza!

Mom's Photo Shop

These are my first attempts at taking pictures with my DSLR without any automatic features on. Since I'm taking a class in March/April, I really have to get to know my camera well. I took about 125 pictures and these were the best. I found out I need to work on my focusing and exposure with lighting. Let me know what you think.

Halloween Scrapbook Layouts

Here are my new Halloween Scrapbooking Pages this year (still haven't done last years but oh well).

Credits: Papers/Elements by Sausan Designs, Oogelie Googelie kit, Word Art by Jodie McNally, Frame by Kylie M. Designs

Credits: Quick Page by Derek M. Designs

Pumpkin Carving Scrapbook layouts

I made these scrapbook layouts this weekend of the kids carving pumpkins the day before Halloween.

Credits: Taylor Made Designs Fall Sun Kit and Lindsay Jane Frames

Photography Practice

I took this picture of the butterfly in my backyard this morning. I'm going to be attending some photography classed in March and April.....I'm so excited.....but I have to know my camera and lenses really well. You'll get to see some of my practice pictures as I go along!

2008 Family Pictures

Hi all! We had our family pictures made in record time this year (yeah us) and just got them back. Apparently the kids don't want to give up the tradition of black on black pictures....they have always called them "Our floating head pictures". So we continued our tradition!

My goulish kids....not really

Here are the kids and their friends on Halloween night. Arrgghhh............I'm a pirate

Kinzi and her best friend Arica who is an Egyptian Princess

Arica, Kinzi, Gunnar (Pumpkin Head) and Nathan (Alien)

Nathan....is an Alien/Ghoul.....he thought Gunnar's brother Tyler would be going trick or treating this year but he ended up having to play in band at a ball game so Nathan (after taking last year off trick or treating ) went with Kinzi, Arica and Gunnar.

This is what greeted the little trick or treaters at my door.

Almost Halloween Part 1

It's almost Halloween here....actually by the time you read this it will be Halloween! We added a bunch of different Halloween decorations to our house this year and I thought I'd show you.

Here's my new witches shelf....got the idea out of a magazine. Chuck made the shelf and I painted it ....everything else was purchased or found at a thrift store. I thought it was cool....I'm going to make a similar one for Christmas that "Santa" hangs his stuff on.

My new table decorations...if the picture isn't to clear click on it and it will bring up a bigger version (if you view it from my blog)

Shelf accessories from Michaels

Our fun little village....we love the mummies sitting on the bench

This is my eyeball wall....I have eyeballs all over the table too! I also found this idea in a magazine!

Almost Halloween Part 2

I'm going to have to upload my pictures in two segments....blogger isn't cooperating.

****Kinzi drawing her pattern on her pumpkin

**Kinzi with a power tool....yikes!

***Nathan trying to cut through the thickest pumpkin we've ever bought!

****Mackinzi's pumpkin

****Nathan's pumpkin....this shiny stuff on them is Vaseline to keep them fresh for tomorrow night!

Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze

This weekend we visited Buckaloo Farms outside of Tucson. They have a huge pumpkin patch where you take a horse-drawn carriage ride to get to the pumpkins. We each chose a pumpkin we'll be carving for Halloween. We also went through the corn maze. In the corn maze, you have to find 12 check points. The kids lead us to each check point, yeah! We had a lot of fun!